I know, I know, I started singing silly songs too…but it’s beautiful, a park in west Seattle on the water with at least 50 tables and cookout spots.
www.cityofseattle.net
That’s what we did today. I would live in West Seattle forever, if I could. The neighborhood is so…neighborhood-y, in a good way. I would need a dog, of course, or two.
As I mentioned here, Fremont is the Center of the Universe. So it should come as no surprise that this is the tag line for their Annual 5k Fun Run. We went down there yesterday to observe the 40-some-odd teams of five that ran the “Briefcase Relay”. You must be in business attire from the waist up, and hilarious as possible at all times. Your briefcase must contain the Yellow Pages, with which you run 1k, and pass off like a heavy, useless baton. I know it’s not that far, but the relay clearly confused a couple peeps. We were duly entertained.
Also we did this. Snoqualmie, it’s just fun to say, isn’t it? Snow-quaaaal-mieee.
About 30 minutes out of Seattle, Snoqualmie is a quaint little town that has falls. That’s about it. And a power plant, attached to the falls. But it was lovely, even as we enjoyed the views with the school bus load of kids – my height, whatever age. This also may or may not be the falls that chick took the most recent ‘Bachelor’ to, I can’t remember.
www.snoqualmiefalls.com
The thing that is so hard about Sasquatch, you see, is that it was awesome. I want to brag and brag. But I’ve been kept from that, because I can not tell a blog lie. There were also things that made me want to fire whoever was in charge. Here are some facts:
Five Good Things
Five Bad Things
It really was split down the middle for me. We were constantly comparing to ACL (we’re so spoiled) – it wasn’t as hot – good, there was a line – bad. There’s more. Our group had the only members of the “no shirt club” that weren’t gross. There were crazies everywhere. We drank Sparks, version 2.0, which I didn’t know existed. The boys got in the zero degree water. I slept like a log. On the ground. MK had SB’s Sasquatch shirt on. It was windy. Oh, I mentioned that. We snuck in beers, and vodka. We danced, we partied til the break of dawn. Come on party people, is that so wrong?
Get it?…
The venue was beautiful, but difficult to get good sound. There was Luca Libre wrestling (where you could find MK at any given moment). Sarah Silverman also sucked. AC and I did the worm and the pencil roll on the hill.
Here’s the list of bands I saw: Two Gallants, Ghostland Observatory, Grizzly Bear, Tokyo Police Club, The Blow, The Hold Steady, Neko Case, Bad Brains, The Long Winters, Spoon, Manu Chao, The Arcade Fire, Interpol, Bjork, Beastie Boys.
That is to the best of my recollection, those with me may disagree.
I am missing so much. It was a crazy weekend. And a good weekend. And I can’t complain.
And if you CLICK HERE – you can see the pictures!!
We just did this. It was lovely. I want to be an artist. The only thing that was missing was the free liquor, but then we found out that there was some, we just missed it. Figures. The whole square was full of vendors and the day cleared up well.
This weekend was…well, what was it? There was drama, action, adventure, team sports, debauchery, food, drinks, camping, music. And I’m still too tired to tell you all about it. Blogging is about the last thing on my mind right now, even though I feel like I owe you – I see those stats dropping…you’re sitting, waiting patiently for the Sasquatch 2007 recap. I honestly don’t know where to start. So give me some more time to think about it, K? I’m sure I’ll come around. Here’s a picture of thugs with beers to tide you over:
We’re already having a better time than you! This is going to be the best weekend ever! Yesterday is the longest day of my life. AC and I were up at six (in the morning), after picking her up at the airport the night before, driving through the city, and wine on the roof. It was glorious yesterday. We walked down to the water and down the trails that I take to run. We walked up and back through the market to get a glimpse, but it was still too early. We went home and got ready to go back out. I learned what shop till you drop really means, we were out all afternoon and at our late lunch it was tough to get back up out of the booth. We took her to Kerry Park, the best view of the city that I’ve seen yet. Back home we cooked out on the roof and had general fantastic times. My favorite guy in the building spent some time giving us Sasquatch tips. Of course, besides all this general information, was the guy that rapped to me about my shirt, the Andes Mountain band and dancers, the gutter punks, the tights debacle, the America’s Next Top Model photo shoot, the dying puppy, and the girly-let’s-play-dress-up that ensued when we got home with new clothes.
Unfortunately, since the day was so long, we decided to take a very brief little nap to regain our stamina. Which means I was reading a book, when RD called to let us know the day was going to be longer – his plane was delayed (he says the official announcement was ‘the plane is broken, we’re getting a new one’). That was around 9, and we got him at about 1. So I’m on maybe two hours sleep, I’ve already made breakfast, and when KD gets here, she won’t be able to see the floor of the living room. It’s a zoo of excitement. We’re coming back here for mimosas, we’ll run around the city, go to a cookout, and stay out as long as we can knowing it’s a three hour road trip to the Gorge tomorrow. Whoa.
Cleaning 100 square feet shouldn’t be taking this long, but we don’t own a vacuum. I’m getting creative. Flapping the floor mats outside on the balcony is way more funny when you are 16 stories up. We have RD and AC coming in tomorrow night, and KD the next morning. LC and RD too, of SXSW fame, but they’re staying with another friend. Which is really good, due to the 100 square feet. We’re going to rock paper scissors for the couch, guys…
The weather has been pretty crappy for the last two days, so I’m hoping it gets over it when they arrive so we can run around like little crazies. Even though MK and I don’t have this whole place figured out, there are those things we have seen that we know we have to share. And there’s so little time! SH has so kindly invited us for a cookout, and then we’re taking our mini road trip out to Sasquatch. I’m even relieved to inform you no one will be ‘sleeping under the stars’, we’ve all got our tents and thermal undies ready to go.
As always, I promise to take great notes and get back to you, even if you don’t hear from me until next Wednesday, think gladly about how much fun you know I must be having. I am on my way to shop for the necessities:
www.chriscurtis.org
Friday we ran, we ate, we shopped, we hung out and played a little Paper Mario. MK took me back to the library, I needed more books! I didn’t realize that one that I checked out was third in a four part series, I don’t do that. We got ready and went out to meet friends at the Greenlake bar The Kangaroo and Kiwi. I hadn’t paid much attention to Greenlake, but it’s like Town Lake. A lake you can run around. Good to know. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned I’ve never driven in this city, so I doubt I could find it to run at, but maybe someday…It was a super fun bar. CD and I beat the boys at darts, always good. This is the crazy part: I met a guy, and told him I was from CT. He said, “Where? I have a best friend that is from _____” (my hometown!) I have never met anyone, ever, before, that has heard of _____, never mind been there and can describe parts to me. Unreal. The guy was older than me, so I’m not sure if I know the friend or not, but since there’s only one school, he’s gotta be in a year book somewhere.
As the night unfolded, there began to be a slightly too extreme amount of debauchery for me. I know, can you believe this day has come? Apparently Seattle-ites party harder than Austinites. Who knew? CD agreed to go with MK and I to a bar back downtown. We ended up at Belltown Billiards. I’ve never had a warmer beer, and I felt like I was on 6th St. back in Austin. College kid party. The music was more hilarious than I’ve ever heard, from Journey to Kid Rock to Salt and Pepa to R. Kelly to Whitesnake. Really. More mixed up that anything, anywhere. We were laughing so hard, and I fell into my joke routine of really bad dance moves that I do when I’m bored, problem being guys were still hitting on us, thinking that’s ‘how we do it’ … They need dance lessons up here. One guy thought he was the white(er) M. Jackson. OMG.
We stayed out all night (finally, every time CD takes us out we’re in bed by 11…) and woke up rather late Saturday morning. I packed us a huge fun and delicious lunch and we went to some sort of park that looked under construction and messy, but had beautiful views and a ton of windsurfers. We ate three inches from the water and succeeded in not getting splashed by any waves. It was past the UW campus (FYI, it’s called You-Dub) and were at the University District light coming back when we noticed there was a street fair, so we checked it out. U-Dist. is like Guadalupe with bars, it’s the main drag for the college. The fair was about 10 blocks long, plus side streets full of food vendors. We didn’t have the camera. It sprinkled a little, and that thing about locals is true – there was not one person over the age of 3 that used an umbrella. It’s all about the hoodie here.
Back home, we got all pretty and headed out to Fado’s, where MK and I enjoyed our “Anniversary Dinner.” That’s right, folks, MK and I will be MARRIED A YEAR next week, and we’re not going to force our 3 guests to take us out to dinner. 🙂 We were actually supposed to meet some people, but didn’t…oh well! We went to Shorty’s to practice a little…then headed home. You understand, of course, that I haven’t posted due to the pain of pinball, my hands were sore with practice and skill, so that’s why it took so long…
PINBALL:
And now, the dramatic conclusion you’ve all been waiting for: I lost my first two out of three match, but won the second, then lost the third, by being matched up against the last year’s champion. The first two games were relatively close, but this third girl beat me by about 100billion points. I was super happy to advance that far in a pool of 24. We made a ton of new friends and had shots with the owner and partied like crazy all night. So the experience was worth it, but I am unfortunately not the owner of a pinball machine. MK and I were starving, even though we wanted to see who won, but it took too long, so I probably won’t know until tomorrow who the winner was. They had film crews and news reporters there and one of the girls I talked to was from Austin. That was fun. What is not fun is not knowing you’re being video-taped saying “I’m not playing that last ball, there’s no point, she’s up 300billion points”, and everyone laughing at you. I’m still mad and MK. I did make the guy promise not to open his segment with my little mini fit…
We ate at Hurricane Cafe, the Kerbey Lane of Seattle, with the notable feature of ALL YOU CAN EAT hash browns, I’m betting we’ll make it there with our guests next weekend – who I am more super excited about that ANYTHING, since it’s 24hrs. and two blocks away. They blared Kelly Clarkson last night. Hopefully they’ll have a new CD next time. It was a little loud.
www.webwombat.com
Once you’ve lived in a city for a month, you get a free pass to decide how you feel about things – everything – and make gross opinionated statements. Due to my general community outreach and diligent exploration, I’ve been given permission at the three week mark. I feel so special. Without further ado:
Everything Good and Bad about Seattle from someone who has lived here three weeks
(as most frequently compared to Austin Texas due to that being the former residence).
www.ram.org
Well, what did I miss? What gross sweeping generalization am I utterly wrong about? I look forward to the discussion!
Cat Killfoil 